In early 2020, American architecture student Caleb Brackney made a split-second decision that would change his life: he bought an old school bus on Facebook.
“I’m the oldest of seven kids and we spent most of the summer travelling out west to all the national parks and state parks. And so I’ve always considered myself a roamer,” he says.
He decided to turn his childhood holidays into his adult lifestyle by renovating the bus to make it into a home. His aim was to gain first-hand experience on how to live more sustainably.
Inspired by a former mentor at school, Caleb bought the 26-year-old bus on Facebook Marketplace for $3,000 (€2,500) and spent another $7,000 (€5,760 ) on turning it into his home. He named it ‘Roamer’.
“The name ‘Roamer’ also came from the town where I bought the bus. It was named Rome, Georgia.”
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After eight months of hard graft and lessons learned the hard way, he moved in.
“I definitely underestimated how long it would take to take everything out,” says Caleb, recalling that “There were over 1000 screws holding the bus together,” many of which were covered in rust.
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Caleb plans to live in the tiny house for the next few years while he finishes his studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. “I want to be able to provide a perfect case study. I have enough to be happy. I’m content and live a really great life,” he says.
Watch the video above to see Caleb’s bus in all its reformed glory.